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Grundfos Student Prize 2009

On 29 October Grundfos awarded two Student Awards to graduates who have made a praiseworthy project in co-operation with the company.

One project presents a new and different way of approaching new business potentials, the other project is an innovative and very applicable recipe for further developing Grundfos’ technology platform. Zidsel Smedegaard-Meyer was awarded DKK 10,000 for her Business Economics project named Exploring the Global Patent Landscape, which is a new way of looking for market opportunities for a specific business area through the analysis of patent databases. Ms Smedegaard-Meyer concentrated her research on the business area for Grundfos BioBooster.

According to Dept. Head, Kurt Vendelbo, Chairman of the Grundfos Student Award jury, this kind of new thinking is essential for reaching innovative solutions for new business areas in the future.

Michael W. Nielsen and Jacob Kidmose each received DKK 5,000 for their joint engineering project which, in addition to being innovative, also turned out to be very applicable for Grundfos’ further development of the company’s technology platform. The two engineers tested a method of reducing the wall thickness in stainless steel rotor cans for circulator pumps. The ironing of the steel is performed in just two pressing processes and it will be possible to complete the processes in existing pressing equipment.

The project, called ”Wall thickness reduction of UP-15 stainless steel rotorcans using ironing process”, has extended the boundaries of what Grundfos’ own engineers thought was possible material-wise and production-wise. The high level of innovation, combined with the strong focus of the two engineers and their ability to take advantage of the entire organisation as well as their great skills in communicating complex issues, made them obvious candidates for the Grundfos Student Award.

Grundfos Student Award of DKK 10,000 is given once a year to a commercial and engineering project respectively, made in co-operation with Grundfos during the past year. The award is only given out if suitable candidates apply for it. To win the prize, projects must be innovative and applicable with scientific weight. The jury also take presentation skills into account.

The jury is made of senior staff from Grundfos’ technical departments as well as production and marketing departments.